Apple’s controlling nature and stringent review policies also apply to iAds, the rich media advertisements injected into mobile apps for the iOS platform. Industry sources have said such tight control over the creative process has caused the first cracks in the otherwise productive relationship between platform owner Apple and the advertisers that signed up for iAds.

According to a Monday piece by the Wall Street Journal, only Unilever PLC and Nissan Co. ran iAd campaigns last month. That’s a pretty slow start if you know that Steve Jobs at the iPhone 4 unveiling announced seventeen high-profile advertisers who committed about $60 million in iAds during the second half of the year. Even Walt Disney Co., the media powerhouse where Apple’s boss is the largest individual shareholder, has yet to roll out an iAd campaign. The business paper asserted that Madison Avenue sees Apple as both an annoyance and the prime reason for the slow iAd take off.

Apple conceived iAds as unobtrusive rich media adverts that don’t yank users out of their apps. Apple says iAds combine the interactivity of web ads with the emotion of television. The company gives developers an easy way to embed iAds inside apps and offers devs a 60/40 split of the advertising revenue. Apple says it entered mobile advertising to enable developers to earn money from ads so they could continue providing free or low cost apps. And although iAds are simple HTML5 apps, advertisers are complaining it takes anywhere between “eight to ten weeks from brainstorm to completion.” Apple is hosting, delivering, and displaying those ads on consumers’ devices.

Advertisers such as Citigroup, Chanel SA and several ad agencies told the paper that Apple stands in the way of the creative process. Those who did run iAd campaigns praise their effectiveness, like Nissan whose Leaf campaign has “driven exceptional results to date,” according to their spokeswoman. The paper also quoted Loopt Inc.’s CEO Sam Altman who expressed his disappointment over the slow iAd takeoff, although some 10,000 developers reportedly signed up for iAds in the first month.

Steve Jobs explores the work-in-progress interactive Nike iAd at a presser in April.

Christian’s Opinion

It’s now marketeers’ turn to adapt to Apple’s way of doing things. Unfortunately for advertisers – but luckily for consumers – Apple owns its users and acts as an intermediary between the advertisers and their content on one side and the users on the other. The problem with the agencies is, they too are the agents between their clients who own advertising dollars and the media that sells ad inventory. The fact the Madison Avenue boys and girls need to deal with a middleman clearly didn’t sit well with them. But no matter how you look at it, that’s the price marketeers must pay if they want to reach Apple’s users in innovative new ways.